Cheetah Scouting

When on safari in African National parks you must be out of the park by sundown. We saw this cheetah scouting a herd of wildebeest just as we were rushing to get back to our lodge.

Masai Giraffe

When we were in Amboseli Park we saw a few giraffes but not many. The giraffes were only found in the areas where the thorn trees grew and Amboseli is largely flat, treeless terrain. There isn't much use in having a long neck to reach into the tallest trees if you don't have tall trees. The nice thing about Amboseli is that your images can have Africa's highest point in the background to add interest to the photo. We were't here for giraffes though, we were here to get elephants in front of Kilimanjaro. As it turns out many people love giraffes so it's good we were able to capture this image. For more information on giraffes see the links section.

Everyone wants to see lions

One of the highlights of an Africa Safari is, of course, the possibility of seeing the "King of Beasts", the African lion. We were lucky on safari from the start. Within an hour of starting opur first morning on safari we found ourselves parked in a Land Cruiser within a couple of metres of six female lions feeding on a freshly killed wildebeest. We were able to sit for about 20 minutes watching and listening to the feast. I recorded the sounds of the crunching of bones and tearing of flesh and took this photo that is my favourite from the moment. It captured for me the up-close feeling that we had. I only had to use a small lens because we were so close. The lions ignored us. Our driver/guide said that lions would usually ignore humans in vehicles but if we stepped out of the vehicle they would "Kill us instantly". And yet here we were, within metres in an open topped vehicle. This was a surreal moment, as many African moments were. It seemed like something out of a National Geographic special but it was actually going on--not on a TV screen. If you want to learn more about lions try going to this site:

Amboseli World Heritage Site

Travel to Africa:

March 9-11 2005 we had booked into the luxurious Serena Lodge at Amboseli National park. After seeing lions feeding and cheetahs hunting on our first day on safari we revelled in the end of day lighting on Kilimanjaro which is clearly visible from the lodge grounds. In this photo you can see Observation Hill, that little bump in front of Kilimanjaro. THis little nob hill is one of the few places where it is allowable to get out of the safari vehicles. A five minute walk takes visitors to the top for a 360 degree view of the entire park. Late light is not easy to capture, however, as the regulations require that safari vehicles are out of the park by sunset, although the rangers are a little flexible if you are a bit after the sun is down. Hakuna Matata but don't stay out until dark or you might get in trouble.

The Itinerary

Our itinerary called for us to leave Calgary Alberta at suppertime on the 6 Feb. AC 850 left at 6:15 and fle3w us overnight across the Atlantic where we disembarked at Heathrow in London, caught the Tube down to Piccadiloly, hiked over to Buckingham Palace, back up the Mall and on to Heathrow. A whirlwind tour of London. On to Dubai on Emirates at 8 at night on the 7th Feb overnight then catch a flight that gets us into Nairobi Kenya at around noon. We had left at suppertime on the 6 and arrived at lunchtime on the 8th all without a comfy bed. Overnight stay in a modernized historic Stanley Hotel then picked up after breakfast and whisked by Land Rover to Amboseli Park.

To the Roof of Africa

The roof of Africa is its high point:Kibo, the centre of three volcanic peaks collectively known as Mt. Kilimanjaro. Uhuru Summit is the goal of thousands of pilgrims who flock to mankind's earliest landmarks--for most of time Kibo was the Everest of the world. It is the world's highest free-standing mountain. Its waters drain into an incredibly complex array of diverse landscapes that harbour the last vestiges of the Earth's great natural ecosystems and wild animal populations. The greatest migrations of animals on land occur near here. Kilimanjaro lies just south of the jog in the border between Kenya to the north and Tanzania. Kilimanjaro lies about 350 miles south of the Equator and is not part of any mountain range. It rises out of the plains and its legendary snows are disappearing fast.

Our friends Fred and Ian are on Kilimanjaro now and the weather is not looking good on the internet. But stormy weather makes for epic photo opportunities and I know they are well armed with digital technology so we should get some great images soon. Good luck guys!

Fred has already delivered clothing from Fernie to Kilimanjaro porters and been in touch with the Masai warrior who is being educated with assistance from Fernie donations at our slideshows. I received an email from Fred saying he would be meeting Lepapa again after the climb . Lepapa has returned to his village in the meantime to try to acquire some authentic Masai spears that can hopefully be brought back to Fernie in Fred's luggage. Lepapa feels that he can help raise funds for his education by selloing them. Hello Lepapa and congratulations on your progress in becoming a tour guide and community development student.

Above are photos of our safari and Kili gear plus a map of East Africa. Kili area is in the red circle. The green circles are world heritage sites or national park clusters. This is the region known as the Cradle of Mankind.

Here is an image of Kilimanjaro. It is one of the first photos we took on our first few minutes on safari in Amboseli National Park. It is dawn and we have just been allowed into the park when we see a spotted hyena so our driver John stops and we get a photo that shows our first impression of the landscape. Kili is in the background just about to get the first rays of the sun. Two minutes later the hyenas led us to our first lions. Stay tuned.

In the Beginning

When Bernie and I decided to finally go to Africa we didn't know much about the place, except that it was where you had to go to see the exotic animals that we grew up dreaming about after reading outdoor magazines. Hunting magazines such as Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Argosy were where we got our Africa information. I memorized the names of the "Big Five", Africa's most dangerous wild beasts. Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Lion, Elephant and Rhino. These were the animals you would go to Africa to kill to prove your worth to the world. I never did expect to go there to kill them, though, just seeing them and the great ungulate herds of the Serengeti would be enough to satisfy me. When it came time to decide where in Africa we would go Serengeti was the word that came to mind.

That meant East Africa just south of the Equator in the border region between Kenya and Tanzania.